Yup

Paul Kukla speaks for me:

The Detroit Red Wings barely are hanging on in the playoff race in the Western Conference. Sitting in the eighth position, the Wings are only four points out of the sixth seed, but are only five points ahead of the 13th seed.

All of this is highly unusual for a Wings fan.

What is going on?

I will be the first to say the Detroit Red Wings have had it fairly easy the past 18 or so years. The regular season was looked upon by Wings fans as a tune-up for the playoffs. Now, our team is fighting to just make the playoffs.

Yes, this is all new to us and quite frankly, very hard on the nerves. This time of year we are normally observing other teams, either to watch their style of play in case we were to meet up in the playoffs or to pick out a player we felt the Wings could trade for to help them in the playoffs.

Instead, Wings fans now are watching other games, hoping a team ahead of them in the standings loses a game in regulation, thereby not receiving any points in the standings. Now, every point counts.

Yup to ALL of the above.  As Paul mentions, this is relatively new to most Wings fans.  But there are those of us who remember the dark, dark "Dead Things" days of the mid-80s and hoping we don't see a return to the Bad Ol' Days.  I don't think we're even remotely close to that sort of situation, but this season IS highly unusual for us fans of the Winged Wheel.  

Making the playoffs is gonna be a near-run thing and getting to a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final (if the Wings DO make the play-offs) is almost too much to hope for.  But we are incurable optimists here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  Hope springs eternal, and all that.